With a Certain Swagger
by SandraSmit19
Summary: He was the man of her dreams, and had been for nearly four years. She had thought he always would be. Jack Swagger/OC. DISCONTINUED!


Disclaimer: I own no one except for Quinn.

Note: The dates of the shows correspond with when the shows were aired, not with when they were taped. The story flows better that way...I think.

For as long as she had known him, Jack Swagger had been her Prince Charming. He had swept her off her feet the day they met and she had been deeply in love with him ever since. Everything about him had seemed perfect to her. The blond hair, the blue eyes, the good looks. His lisp had been the cutest thing about him, especially with him standing 6 feet and 6 inches and weighing over 260 pounds.

She remembered those first few months of dating with fondness. He had been so sweet, so gentle. He had showered her with gifts and affection, and it had been the latter that had sealed him in her heart forever. This had remained this way for a long and blissful time.

When he had made his debut on the ECW brand of the WWE in September of 2008, she had been there, becoming his valet almost immediately. When he had become the ECW World Champion some four months later, she had been right by his side, tears of pride in her eyes. When he had lost his title at the end of April in 2009 at Backlash, she had been there too, sharing the defeat and disappointment. And nothing had changed between them through it all. Despite his habit of cheating to win matches and attacking people from behind, despite him being hugely unpopular with the fans, he was still perfect to her.

The first cracks had begun to appear when the All-American American became the World Heavyweight Champion for the first time in March of 2010. She had been so happy for him and so proud to be his girlfriend. It hadn't bothered her that he had cashed in his Money in the Bank title-shot after the then World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho had been speared by Edge. All was fair in love and war, after all.

No, that hadn't bothered her. What had bothered her was the championship seemingly becoming the most important thing in his life. No longer would he make time for her even when he was tired. No longer would they go out to dinner, or take long walks, or even talk for longer than five minutes. They were still intimate but it seemed to never happen spontaneously anymore. She always had to bring it up, making her come off as some kind of nymphomaniac.

It wasn't that she didn't understand his love for the gold. He had worked very hard to get to where he was and he deserved to have the title. She just didn't get why she had to take a backseat to it. It hadn't been that way when he had been the ECW World Champion.

She had tried to talk to him about it, but he always told her that she didn't understand. That since she wasn't a wrestler, she *couldnt* understand. He had become very fond of pointing that out, that she wasn't a wrestler, or even an athlete, that she didn't work out, didn't maintain what he called a sensible diet, didn't...well, basically didn't live the way he did, the way he felt she should. That too had never been a problem before.

Though they still didn't have any tangible problems, and they were still for all intents and purposes a happy couple, her feeling of discontent grew when on the May 14 edition of Smackdown, he put her in the line of fire. She had taken her share of bumps prior to this, of course. Standing at the side of a man who had a god-given talent for pissing people off meant quite a bit of punishment came her way as well but he had always done his best to protect her, to keep her out of harms way, until that day.

She remembered standing in the ring alongside her boyfriend, surrounded by his many trophies and awards. She remembered listening proudly as he gave the crowd a rundown of his life, which she knew to be impressive. He had been an athlete since he was very young and had won more trophies and awards in his childhood than most people won in their entire lives. She flushed as she remembered him telling the crowd he was dating the most beautiful woman on the face of the planet and proceeded to insist that she twirl for the crowd. She did so, feeling her face burn and wishing her skirt was longer, though she gave Swagger a happy smile. He was so sweet.

The fans cheered for her as she wasn't hated the way Swagger was, but she knew they would rather be watching anything other than a 'presentation' on the All-American American's life. Swagger continued to describe his many achievements until the Big Show turned up. Show insisted that he wasn't there to destroy any of Swaggers awards only to 'accidentally' destroy his national Scrabble and ballroom dancing awards. Quinn watched in dismay as Swagger attacked the Big Show, only for Show to get the better of him. Quinn quickly left the ring as Show tore Swagger's suit coat off and threw him from the ring. He then proceeded to destroy the majority of Swagger's trophies while Swagger yelled in anger and frustration. This continued until Swagger had had enough.

_(Flashback)_

"Go around," Swagger said to her as Big Show continued to destroy the trophies and awards.

"What?" Quinn stammered, not quite sure what he was asking.

"Go around the ring. I'll distract him, you save what you can," Swagger insisted, giving her a light shove, his eyes fixed on the ring.

She ran around the ring until she was behind the Big Show and Swagger got up on the apron. Predictably the Big Show went straight for him. Quinn took a deep breath and crawled into the ring, crawling over the portraits that Show had knocked over. She grabbed the first trophy she could get her hands on and dragged it off the table and to the outside of the ring. She set it down and quickly went for one of the awards she knew meant a lot to Swagger. She had just brushed the award with her fingers when the Big Show turned around. She had frozen in her tracks, her arm still outstretched towards the award. She couldn't see Swagger standing anywhere anymore and realized the Big Show must have knocked him off the apron.

She got up from where she was kneeling and had the vague thought that she might as well have stayed on her knees. She still barely reached his chest. She slowly backed up into the corner of the ring, her hands up in front of her. She was dimly aware that she was begging the big man not to hurt her, pleading with him as he approached her. She couldn't see Swagger while looking up at the man in front of her but surely he was back to his feet by now, surely he would intervene soon. She let out a breathless yelp when her back hit the corner and she had nowhere to go. Her voice had been soft as she had been begging him, little sound coming out due to her fear but when the Big Show clamped one hand on her shoulder and started pulling her towards the center of the ring, forcing her to step over the ravages of Swaggers trophies and awards, something snapped inside of her and she started screaming in earnest.

"Jack, Jack," she shrieked as the Big Show wrapped one hand around her throat.

And then she was up in the air, resting on top of the large hands of the Big Show. She was still shrieking, begging Swagger to help her. Where was he? She squeezed her eyes shut as Show appeared to be carrying her somewhere and she thought she heard Swagger's voice coming from somewhere. What was he saying? She couldn't hear and she had no time to wonder, because then she was falling. Falling from very high, for what seemed like a long time. She anticipated crashing onto the mat, the floor outside the ring, maybe even the steel ramp. She turned in mid-air and waited for the impact only to find herself landing in someone's strong arms. And then she could hear her boyfriends voice clearly and she could make out his words.

"Its okay, baby, I got you," he was saying. "Youre okay."

Quinn clung to Swagger as he set her back on her feet, her whole body trembling. She heard Swagger shout up at the Big Show one last time before he was leading her backstage.

(Flashback ends)

Upon arriving backstage after this incident, she had quickly been able to calm down. Once she had, she felt a little silly. The Big Show hadn't really done anything to her, but it wasn't any physical trauma that had caused her to panic like that. It had been the fear of the unknown, the fear that she might get hurt at any moment. Once that had faded she had been fine.

What had taken far longer to fade was her dismay. Her dismay at Jack's refusal to step in to help her, which he had always done in the past, but also at him putting her at risk in the first place. She was a grown woman and she could have said no but she felt he had taken advantage of her need to please him, her need to see him happy.

And he hadn't even been apologetic about it. He told her he knew the Big Show wouldn't actually hurt her and that that was why he hadn't stepped in. He also told her that what had happened wasn't a big deal. She had stared at him for a long moment, unable to believe that this was coming from the man who had no more than a year earlier vowed to destroy Christian after Captain Charisma had fallen on top of Quinn after being thrown from the ring, and no amount of talking could persuade him the incident had been accidental.

In the next week or so prior to Over the Limit, Swagger's feud with the Big Show got more and more violent. The Big Show's constant presence mixed with plenty of other opponents waiting to take his title meant Swagger was dealing with all he could handle on a daily basis, and his temper was getting increasingly short. She tried to stay out of trouble, but she was prone to being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as evident when she suffered an RKO six days before the pay-per-view when she failed to wait for Orton to leave the ring, and a chairshot the day before the pay-per-view when Kane pulled her in front of him when Swagger swung a steel chair. These incidents served to make Swagger even more antagonistic and they had had more than a few fights over the last week that had seen Quinn in tears at the end of it.

By the time the Over the Limit pay-per-view had begun, Quinn was ready to just pack her stuff and go home to Oklahoma. Swagger had been particularly short with her all day as he focused on his match and she just didn't think she could take anymore. Every time he turned his angry eyes towards her, she could feel her stomach clench, as if someone had punched her there. When it was almost time for Swaggers match, they were sitting on the black leather sofa in his lockerroom, watching the ending of the Randy Orton / Edge match. Quinn was barely paying attention to the match, her eyes on the All-American American as he moodily stared at the tv. Finally, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.

"Are you gonna stare at me for much longer?" he asked, his voice soft but his tone still the same. Still angry.

Quinn looked away from him, feeling that same unpleasant clenching feeling in her stomach again. She shook her head, not knowing what to say.

"You think staring at me is gonna help?" he asked, his eyes finally meeting hers.

Quinn opened and closed her mouth several times, struggling to find an answer. Swagger went to say something else when he suddenly turned his head back to the tv. She turned to see what he was looking at and saw that the Big Show was being interviewed in the backstage area. They listened as worlds largest athlete told Josh Mathews what he was gonna do to Swagger during their match. He also addressed what had happened nine days prior to the pay-per-view.

"Your woman was scared out of her mind, she was screaming for your help, and you did nothing," he was saying, addressing Swagger directly. "I had no intention of harming her, but she didnt know that. And you didnt know that. For all you knew, my intention was to chokeslam her right in the center of the ring. And you would have done nothing. Thats the kind of man you are, Swagger. Thats the kind of *champion* you are."

Quinn slowly turned her eyes from the monitor and glanced at Swagger, only to wish that she hadn't. His eyes were furious, his nostrils flaring, his fists were clenching and unclenching. She went to say something, what she didn't know, but he cut her off by getting up.

"Lets go," he simply said, before walking out of the lockerroom.

Quinn looked after him for a few seconds, before rising to her feet and heading for the door. She was unsure of what was to come, unsure of where they stood as a couple, but she knew that no matter what she would be by his side, or try to be. She was only able to hope that things would turn out okay.


End file.
